Credit Card Churning Rules and Manufacture Spend, What’s Left?

Today, I will be doing our next churn and sign my wife up for 3 credit cards. In thinking about what cards to get, I started taking a look at what was left churning wise and what was left to meet those minimum spends. In doing so I compiled a short list of where things currently stand. It helped me organize my thoughts so I thought I would share.

While doing this exercise, the funny thing was I remembered I can use my everyday spending to help meet minimum spends. It’s been so long since I used everyday spending for minimum spend that I honestly forgot. How novel to use a credit card the way it was intended to be used?

Credit Cards

Amex – One bonus per lifetime

Wells Fargo – One bonus per lifetime

Chase – 5/24 rule soon to be applied to all cards.

Citi – 18 months, but what do recent shutdowns mean?

Bank of America – Churnable? Yes, but not like they used to be, special thanks to MMS and Frequent Miler.

Barclays – 6 months

Manufactured Spend

Redbird – Dead

Serve – Zombie (dead for some, tread lightly for others)

Bluebird – Zombie

Buxx – Dead

Citigold – Dead

Money Orders – Get a lawyer

Other Prepaids – Short term fix be ready to float when shut down

Paypal – Be ready to float

Fidelity Brokerage – Need to be rich

Reselling – Float

Normal Everyday Spend – You mean I have to spend my own money!

As you can see not much is left. It is a pretty ugly time for this hobby. I would be lying if I said I don’t have a certain amount of frustration with those who contributed to the demise of this game. Good news is that there are still things left but I definitely have to reduce the scale.

My last churn was six cards this one will be three. Fortunately, I don’t need much to meet our goals for Hawaii this year and Ireland next year. I actually have all the miles I need for those trips but I want to pad my mileage accounts a bit, a little hoarding doesn’t hurt.